Spectator totems and consoles have been added to give you a better view of the fight.

The Alliance fight pit floor has been raised to make it easier to view the fight.

The boss in the video preview image above is Hexos. You must constantly turn so that he does not hit any of the incoming rectangles, while doing ~100K DPS.

Blue Tweets

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Classes
Talking a lot about class cooldowns. We could lower CDs or lower magnitude and buff sustained. (Source)
This could have both PvE and PvP benefits. The CD effects would be harder to notice though. Thoughts? (Source)
Imagine Recklessness as a 10% crit buff or a nerfed GoaK on a 2-3 min timer along with sustained DPS buff. (Source)

Curious: what do you feel is the best crit %, from a "fun to play" perspective? Assume dps is normalized.
Assuming nothing procs from crit? I'd say something like 15-20%. If you're depending on procs etc. then much higher. (Source)

Do you feel hunters need the most work out of all the pures for spec differences and dmg output as of now for 6.0?
We think rogues and hunters need more spec differentiation. (Source)

Do you feel warlocks are generally behind most other pure dps classes in terms of damage and cc (especially mages, rogues)?
Warlocks? No. Hunters are the only pure that feel a little low, and we are buffing them slightly in 5.3. (Source)

Hey GC. How do you feel about DoT snapshotting being an important part of some specs DPS? Seems opaque and complex imo.
It can be opaque and complex. It can also be one of those things to let really skilled players stand out. (Source)
I've said a few times lately that we're cool with difficult hoops for marginal gains. (Source)
But if the gains aren't marginal then the hoops feel mandatory. (Source)Is there any way to win there? Or is this just another knife's-edge situation?
We just need to make sure that players who want to skip those complications still have fun. (Source)

so why does shape shifting as a druid clear movement impaires but not shaman's ghost wolf? + the additional 10% speed increase
That's just a druid class benefit. We try not to have every class mechanic work the exact same way. (Source)

Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)are you happy with how the current dk resource system works? Or do you feel the rune system was better in wrath?
Honestly not sure. Current model solves the orphaned rune and GCD lock problems better, but it is complicated. (Source)

Why weren't DK dots nerfed to refresh their strength instead of messing with the numbers on FeS, SS, and UM?
We wanted the Festerblight style to be optional, not mandatory. (Source)It doesn't look like much of an option anymore as it now relies on getting tricks + unrealistic execution to be optimal
The problem might be Tricks. We may have overnerfed the FB damage. (Source)

Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)any though on makeing more glyphs baseline like glyph of lifebloom for resto druids?
When it makes sense. If we make every good glyph baseline then we need to make more glyphs (and hope they aren't too good). (Source)

Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Many hunters want a MM completely re-design. Possible?
I would use that word with caution. It would not be at the warlock level. Are there things we can do? Yes. (Source)

Marks/Surv feel less developed now that most of their appeals were made into talents. They feel less flavorful now
We want the spec choice to come down to kit or specific rotation. (Agree that hunters need work on both.) (Source)Marks rotation feels like the most rewarding. BS baseline will be nice. BM is more survivable than survival though
My perception (which could be wrong) is SV hunters are the most likely to be sad when they can't play their spec. (Source)

So what's the verdict on Scater/Trap DR GC?
We aren't changing it for 5.3 (meaning it will be as on live). We nerfed some BM pet CC instead. (Source)

Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Can you give any insight as to why the Cata version of Sacred Shield was removed from Ret? And is it possible it will return?
Honestly, it's because in Cata so many paladins asked for the LK version back. I guess we could alternate every expansion. (Source)Is it not possible to have the Cata version of Sacred Shield baseline for Ret while also having the talent choice?
One of the issues is that Ret mostly takes SH while Prot only takes SS. Maybe both Ret and Prot would want (Cata) SS as a talent. (Source)
Could replace current talent with the Cataclysm Sacred Shield and give the current one to Prot baseline I guess. (Source)

Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Will enhancement get a overhaul/ new resource system anytime soon? Feels old and clunky and enhance got so much potential!
Overall, we don't foresee adding new resources (like Holy Power or Embers) to any existing classes or specs soon. (Source)
We're pretty happy with Enhance's cooldown-driven rotation. Major changes aren't likely soon. (Source)

Could we at least ask for options to modify ascendance damage and move it to outside the cooldown?
The concern is that shifting too much DPS out of CDs makes the CDs feel meh. It's nice when you can really feel them. (Source)This may be true but it changes the pvp meta game. Some may like it but I don't and some of my mates quit.
That's the concern and why we're floating the idea out there rather than just doing it for 5.3. (Source

Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Are you done with affliction pvp for 5.3? I am not playing ptr so i would love to know how do you think its performing atm.
We don't get a ton of PvP testing on smaller patches like this so most of our information is just player feedback. (Source)
We like Aff rotation in PvE, but we're worried that MG and SB:SS hold them back in PvP. Would rather just have strong dots. (Source)

Currently, RoF feels really clunky for Warlocks to use in single target fights, but it's required. Any plans to change this? To which I mean, doesn't feel like it belongs there in the single target rotation. Just feels clunky and annoying. Thoughts?
We agree. We didn't remove it for 5.3 because we'd want to buff ember generation to compensate. (Source)

When would we see the change to increase ember generation (without relying on RoF to generate embers)?
My guess is 5.4. (Source)

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)How come arms warriors lost shield slam/shield block if you want to do more with them?
Because shield macros suck. You will see quite often our dev style is one step back, two steps forward. (Source)
We make short-term changes that are good for the game but against our long-term goals, which understandably confuses players. (Source)

Warriors are just HORRIBLE on PTR. Dead in three seconds, dominated by ranged classes. Enough already.
What changed from live? We buffed warrior defenses and no caster should have gotten large DPS buffs. (Source)

So you are saying you can't just put down a blocking volume around your Battlegrounds edges to stop that?
If the solutions are that obvious, chances are they've already been considered and rejected. (Source)

Toxic BehaviorWhat did you think of Riot's Toxic Player Behavior presentation at GDC? Any lessons that can be applied to WoW?
I think it's awesome. A lot of lessons that can be applied to WoW (or any game) but hard to go into via twitter. (Source)

What do you think Blizz can do better, if anything, to combat toxic attitudes within the WoW community?
Interesting Q. We removed the need for friends in order to see content, which is awesome, but we didn't insert anything in place. (Source)
With friends, you are happy somebody got loot. In LFR, other players are tools to get what you want. (Source)
Providing more info to players so they didn't have to know all the tribal secrets would help. (Source)
Letting you care a little more about the group would help. (Source)
But honestly, I find most players I interact with are helpful and generally pretty nice. I understand there are always bad apples. (Source)

Player Subscription LossesYou have lost 1.3 million subscribers because the game is to time consuming for us casuals. Bring back tabards. Dailies suck
We heard from A LOT of players in Cataclysm that they didn't have enough to do and got bored. It's a tough sweet spot to hit. (Source)

I hope you folks realize your sub drop cannot continue
I can't imagine the original devs expected the game to go on as long as it has. Keep playing and we'll keep developing. (Source)

Activision Q1: 1.3M lost subs, how much was PVE & PVP? Can you hear player feedback now? Class balance & cut time sinks!
The losses were mostly in Asia. China's game market has matured amazingly in only a few years. They release many MMOs a year. (Source)

LFR has cut into raiders avail for normals. Low motivation since end boss killed on release. Led to sub-unsub cycle?
Most of the losses were in Asia, where the raiding culture is pretty different. Recall, they have 3 lockouts already. (Source)

Another 1.3 million subscribers gone. Can we start agreeing that maybe pushing out new dailies every patch is not great?
Players come for new expansions and then drift away. This is nothing new and why we are trying to release expansions faster. (Source)

MiscYou may be releasing patches fast but most of them are bare bones. 2 major patches = 2 daily hubs and a raid. The end.
What is a patch that you thought offered a reasonable amount of content? (Source)5.2 was good but would have been better with a 5 man or 2. But least you aknowledge no 5 mans was a mistake.
Not a mistake, in that we wouldn't change it if we could do it all again. (Source)
More of a compass heading that we'd like to figure out a way to do it all in the future. Dungeons are cool. We get that. (Source)

Why is it a problem if I like to repeatedly run dungeons? Am I doing it wrong if that's what I find fun?
Nope, and we try to support it. We just don't make that the most rewarding way because we think it's good for the long term game. (Source)
We have found that making things too convenient and letting players focus too much on small parts of the game leads to burn out. (Source)
I know it might seem a paradox that a more convenient game is less compelling, but our data supports it. (Source)Yet your two most succesful expansions had it as the most rewarding way. What you are doing is WRONG
Our two most successful expansions had terrible class balance too. I'm not sure that's why they were successful. (Source)

You forced me to do what I don't like or even hate: scenarios, dailies, pet battles, brawler guild and etc.
I can understand scenarios and dailies. Why would you do pet battles and brawler's guild if you don't enjoy them? (Source)There are achievements for pet battles? You have to gain them even if you hate it.Just so others can see big numbers
Achievements are the epitome of optional. If you're saying you are forced to do achievements then... I don't know. More gin. (Source)

Just to play devils advocate. I would like 1 raid + Silvermoon, please. Then you will say "The majority would not".
I don't know what the majority would say. But we don't design around majorities. (Source)
The majority would say buff paladins because they are often the most popular class. (Source)

Is the Black market AH successful in takeing gold out of the economy? What sort of adjustments would you make?
Not sure. Pretty happy with it overall. (Source)

The vast majority of the playerbase enjoy slower patches so we can enjoy one's content longer. ICC was great.
Look, if I'm not comfortable speaking on behalf of "the vast majority of the playerbase" I don't see how you can be... (Source)
I'll buy that you and maybe a lot of your friends feel that way, which is totally legit. (Source)
But we also have a lot of data about how players spend their time and when various players tire of a certain patch. (Source)

Your a multimillion dollar company, Hire a new artist. Do not say we are picky about who we hire. (Multimillion)
I don't think hiring anyone who walked through the door would give you the quality of art your are looking for. (Source)

I'd take that over more broken pvp, or fast raid releases. If hardcore raiders are the minority, why cater to them?
If we don't care about small minorities, then we should stop supporting trolls and dwarves. (Source)

well we all thought that Cataclysm was going to include the BC starting zones since they are in fact in Azeroth!
We thought the BE and Draenei start zones had aged much better than the older ones. (Source)

Weekly News Recap
Here is your chance to catch up if you missed a day of news this week!

I feel talking to the blues on the forums is a waste of time I love to argue/debate and what not about the current state of wow but I feel like I would have less one sided responses from that filthy Siri woman from my IPad

"We removed the need for friends in order to see content, which is awesome".

What.. The.. Fuck? Ghostcrawler thinks the removal of need for friends in an MMO is awesome? Resign. This man and anyone likeminded has no place on an MMO dev team.

Ouch, you should probably see an ortho about your knee after that.

He's talking about seeing raid content. You know, the single most difficult and time-consuming aspect of MMO's for companies to get right -- which Blizzard has done consistently for nine years. Why wouldn't you want as many people as possible to experience that which you poured most of your resources into?

---------- Post added 2013-05-12 at 03:57 PM ----------

Originally Posted by shimargh

"original devs"

I always said it, it's impossible that the same persons who made (at least in concept) Ulduar, are still working in "this wow".

That's quite the non sequitur there. The tweet GC was replying to was implying that this sub drop marks the beginning of the end for a game that still has 8 million subscribers after nine years. What GC is saying is that even if those 8 million people all cancelled their subs tomorrow, World of Warcraft has been a massive success beyond anyone's wildest imagination -- including the original developers.

He's talking about seeing raid content. You know, the single most difficult and time-consuming aspect of MMO's for companies to get right -- which Blizzard has done consistently for nine years. Why wouldn't you want as many people as possible to experience that which you poured most of your resources into?

---------- Post added 2013-05-12 at 03:57 PM ----------

That's quite the non sequitur there. The tweet GC was replying to was implying that this sub drop marks the beginning of the end for a game that still has 8 million subscribers after nine years. What GC is saying is that even if those 8 million people all cancelled their subs tomorrow, World of Warcraft has been a massive success beyond anyone's wildest imagination -- including the original developers.

Because then people will degrade the specialness of my purples!!!!11111

He's talking about seeing raid content. You know, the single most difficult and time-consuming aspect of MMO's for companies to get right -- which Blizzard has done consistently for nine years. Why wouldn't you want as many people as possible to experience that which you poured most of your resources into?

I'm ok with an easy mode. I don't think it should be a stepping stone to proper raiding, and I definitely don't think easy mode should include the removal of the social aspect. If you're absolutely awful and you have 4 hours every week to play, then by all means have a mode with bosses with practically no abilities. I don't see how anybody has more fun by being exempt of the social aspect. There are tons of games already that don't include it, and I don't want to see WoW turned any closer to it. And more importantly, I don't want its developers to think that the removal of the social aspect is "awesome". The social aspect made wow what it is.

I always said it, it's impossible that the same persons who made (at least in concept) Ulduar, are still working in "this wow".

The original devs of WoW didn't really make Ulduar either. The team grew with each expansion, so unless you solely love launch content, then the new devs that have been added over time have made things you like.

He's talking about seeing raid content. You know, the single most difficult and time-consuming aspect of MMO's for companies to get right -- which Blizzard has done consistently for nine years. Why wouldn't you want as many people as possible to experience that which you poured most of your resources into?[COLOR="red"]

Well, if you made an FPS game with a difficult end boss, would you implement a mode allowing you to fight the boss as if it was an RTS? WoW is a MMORPG, LFR is removing the MMORPG part of it. Kind of weird.